This nicely finished part is made of high grade American steel rectangular tubing and will provide additional stiffness to the rear section of the vehicle frame. The two rectangular tubes are stitch welded together, to make an extremely rigid (16 pound) frame crossmember under the gas tank. The fabrication is done locally in Phoenix by skilled technicians. The design has an improved set of mounting holes to facilitate easy installation without an assistant.
The entire part is powder coated (black) to prevent rust. When installed, the Simple Engineering 4-bolt Rear Crossmember is much less obvious than the Trailblazer 4-bolt one from GM.
This design has shown favorable improvements in chassis stiffness and handling when road tested on the track at Sebring. The 700+ hp AWD TBSS that was used for a test platform is raced by a chassis handling engineer. What most SSR owners notice first is the lack of creaking and groaning from the top when pulling into a driveway. Price includes high strength mounting hardware.
For installation on Trailblazer SS frames (ONLY)Â Two 10mm threaded inserts need to be included in the hardware kit. You must put a note in the “Comments” when checking out in order to let us know you need them.
The threaded inserts will need to be installed in the forward mounting locations of the crossmember, since the TBSS only has provisions for the single tube. Installation is simple – – just mount the two rear crossmember locations into the existing frame inserts, mark the location for drilling two 1/2″ holes in the bottom of the frame, remove the crossmember, drill the holes and install the inserts. To install the inserts, thread the bolt (with a washer) all the way into the insert, force it into the frame and then tighten it down with a wrench. Back the bolt out and re-install the crossmember.